The festive period is one known for joy, gifting and being merry to many. To retailers, it is seen as a major opportunity for increased sales in-store and, ever increasingly so, online. Over the last few years, e-commerce sales have increased 7% year-on-year. In terms of spending, the forecast for holiday sales from November 2022 to January 2023 is estimated at over $1trillion. The spending peak of this period comes over Cyber Week, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday being the two main events.
Many retailers unprepared to deal with malicious bot attacks, with big consequences
Each year, retailers compete against each other to offer their customers a seamless shopping experience to ensure they attain a generous cut of such spending. Many of those aiming to drive up sales online have invested hundreds of thousands in building up and refreshing various digital channels, as well as paying for sleek digital marketing campaigns. However, many remain unaware and unprepared to deal with one of the biggest threats to digital sales: malicious bot attacks.
Automated tasks, or bots, represent a large portion of genuine internet traffic with many being used to perform useful functions such as search engine efficiency improvement. However, there is a plethora of malicious bots seeking to wreak havoc. Such bots are operated by cybercriminals and fraudsters alike who are trying to maximise their own profits during this busy period. Bots can target retail operations in a number of ways. Some of the most popular include:
- Snapping up this season's most demanded items to then resell them at a higher price
- Swiping loyalty points and vouchers
- Crawling through the website to steal customer data, including credit card numbers
What are the implications for companies in this sector & how can customer trust be impacted?
Malicious bots pose a serious threat to customer satisfaction, data privacy and web performance. Ultimately, companies who are unable to protect themselves from such events during the festive period will in turn receive disintegrated customer trust. Reputational impact could be huge due to the potential rapid propagation of posts tagged on social networks, claiming for complaints to the retailer amid the "cyber event". Disintegrated trust leads to a reduction into repeat customers, leading to a loss in revenue and, potentially, a loss in market share.
However, with the correct knowledge and awareness of such threats, organisations can prime themselves for protection against bot attacks.
Solutions to fight back against malicious bots
Bot mitigation software vendors provide sophisticated security tools developed specifically to identify and prevent malicious accesses, as well as implementing other security features to stop sites from becoming overwhelmed by illegitimate traffic. Whilst brand protection solutions offer to block and remove malicious domains posing as the retailer, therefore limiting the likelihood of stolen data. However, it is worth noting neither of these solutions offer a "silver bullet" to bot protection. Any solution needs to be implemented with care and tailored to the retailer's specific needs and requirements to ensure its effectiveness.
First, insight into their own level of security and cyber exposure is the best tool a retailer can have in understanding what is required to specifically bolster defences against digital attacks. It is recommended for retailers to enrol in an assessment which highlights weaknesses and defines remediation initiatives with realistic implementation timeframes. Not only will this allow the retailer to have a clearer understanding of what protection tooling will work for them in reducing their exposure, but it will also highlight how ready an organisation is to respond to an attack should one take hold. Comprehensive cyber security response plans need to be created, tested, and reviewed at least annually by every organisation to ensure efficient response.
Therefore, just as retailers see the need to step up their business operations at this time of year, it is important that cyber security keeps pace too. All retailers should ready themselves for the potential likelihood that they could be victim to a cyber attack this year. Taking the time to understand and acknowledge the wider threats and cyber issues that their businesses face will ensure retailers are best prepared to protect both customer trust and market share.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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